Leasing Out Life
by J. Maria
Summary: For hundreds of years, Lucian has been trying to find what he lost when Sonja died. Close to death, he just might find what he wasn't looking for in Dawn Summers.
1. Prologue: The Rise and The Fall of the

Title: Leasing Out Life  
>Author: Jmaria<br>Rating: FR-15  
>Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy or Underworld. I'm just completely fascinated by them.<br>Spoilers: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (even though everything considered a spoiler is in the first movie) and season 7.  
>Summary: For hundreds of years, Lucian has been trying to find what he lost when Sonja died. Close to death, he just might find what he wasn't looking for in Dawn Summers<br>A/N: Thought about this as I was watching the movie with a friend. The girl who played Sonja looks eerily like Selene, who I think looks a bit like Dawn…and did Lucian actually die in the first movie? They left it kinda open ended, if I recall. Now I'll have to dig out my VHS copy of _Underworld_. Anywho, assume he doesn't die in the end of the first movie, mmkay? Set in say 2005 (cause if I remember that's when Evolution came out - they never said what year it was, did they?). It makes Dawn at least 19.

_**Leasing Out Life**_  
><em>Prologue: The Rise and The Fall of the Immortals<em>

It began long ago with a plague that tore through a small Hungarian village, leaving one lone survivor: Alexander Corvinus. Something in him - in his blood - changed the very nature of the disease, making him the very first true immortal. This trait he passed down onto two of his seven children. One bitten by bat, one bitten by wolf, and one left to wander the weary road of mortals.

Marcus and William were the eldest of Alexander's children, twin brothers cursed to be vampire and lycan. They were the most vicious and primordial of their kind, each remaining true to their very bestial beginnings. Marcus could pull back to his human form, while his brother was stuck forever as the beast.

Alexander washed his hands of his sons, in some futile effort to save the remaining family of his and to forever clean up after his sons messes. He was not alone, for there was still that child that was cursed with mortality. A mortality he protected fiercely, having already lost three of his children to William and Marcus's thirsts and hungers: Magda, Alessa, and Vincent. He did not even have his grandchildren to comfort him in his grief. His youngest son Vincent's pregnant young wife Marta had been dragged off by one of William's beastly children, both lost to time.

And so it was that the curse of Corvinus became a reality. One son bitten by a bat to become father of all of the vampires. One son bitten by a wolf to become father to all of the lycans. And only one son left to wander the weary path of mortals.

Except he wasn't so very alone. He had his twin sister by him through his whole life. Twins, Alexander's only other pair to ever be born in his very long life. One set kept eternally apart, one set never to be parted.

Michael Corvin, the lycan-vampire hybrid, had come from Corvinus's son. But the descendant of the forgotten daughter has just set foot in front of the one man who could use her blood just as he used her distant cousin's blood. Only he doesn't know it.


	2. One: Battle's End

Title: Leasing Out Life  
>Author: Jmaria<br>Rating: FR-15  
>Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy or Underworld. I'm just completely fascinated by them.<br>Spoilers: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (even though everything considered a spoiler is in the first movie) and season 7.  
>Summary: For hundreds of years, Lucian has been trying to find what he lost when Sonja died. Close to death, he just might find what he wasn't looking for in Dawn Summers<br>A/N: Okay, so apparently Kraven was a big ole douche who unloaded a friggin clip of silver nitrate bullets into Lucian. I remembered him popping back up - but part of my brain blocked that ending. And there was that whole finding Sonja's necklace thing at the end. So maybe he's not dead, maybe he is. For the sake of this fic - he ain't.

_**Leasing Out Life**_  
><em>One: Battle's End<em>

He'd been prepared to die, having seen his will come to fruition. Michael was not the miraculous blending of lycan and vampire that the child he and Sonja had created six hundred years ago would have been, but he was indeed something Lucian had long wished to see. For not only was this the first hybrid of the two great species, but he - like Lucian himself had so many centuries ago - had fallen for Victor's prized Death Dealer.

She looked so much like Sonja had, so much like his long dead bride that he felt a slight stab of jealousy. Michael would be the first of his kind, just as Lucian had been - just as his child would have been. Which is why he stabbed Kraven through the leg when he'd tried to shoot Michael again after Selene had bitten him. Pity his aim couldn't have been higher.

The vampire had tried to shoot him again, but Kraven's clip had been empty of the cursed silver nitrate bullets. Once again, the would-be-king was impotent when it came to being rid of those who would thwart him. It brought a satisfied smirk to Lucian's lips. The vision of Michael and Selene would be his last, and it was a comforting vision.

Lucian pulled himself up along the tunnels of the sewers, dragging his useless body up. He was aware fully that he was dying. But he would not die in the filth of the subterranean tunnels that so mirrored the ones he was born in. He would die free beneath the night sky, praying that when his eyes opened next, he would be looking into his Sonja's eyes.

* * *

><p>Rain poured down on the slick Hungarian street as Dawn Summers rushed out of the doorway. Thunder rumbled, sending booming vibrations through her slim frame. Muttering a curse under her breath, she made a mad dash for the next underground entrance. God, she hated thunderstorms. Give her warm sunny days and cool balmy nights any day over the constant wetness and cold.<p>

If only she hadn't put off that stupid trip to the library so late, she'd be safely tucked up in her modest apartment and not out in the oh-so-crappy weather. She shook her head and started to turn down the steps when something slammed into her. All of her 'training' with Buffy fled from her mind as she landed hard on her back as the drenched and nasty smelling body landed firmly on top of her. It chose that moment to start raining harder, as if that was even possible. Groaning, she tried to push at the _thing_ on top of her. Her hands came back slick, and the person didn't move, only settled harder on her. A groan hit her ears, and she realized the person on her was definitely male when his head all but burrowed into her breasts.

"Okay, buddy, get off!" Dawn squirmed, pushing at him again. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and she was finally able to push him off of her. Aggravated and drenched, she lifted a hand to push sodden hair off of her face when the metallic scent of blood hit her nose. "Oh, crap."

* * *

><p>Lucian's entire body throbbed as he settled heavily into the female form beneath him. He couldn't lift his head to respond to her, the effects of the poison in his system robbing him of his much needed strength. She tried to push him off her, but he was essentially dead weight. A half-smile slid over his lips.<p>

"Look, I know you're hurt and everything, but honestly, I don't need any more of your bodily fluids on me, okay?" She squirmed beneath him, her breasts pressing more firmly against his face.

Lucian's nostrils flared at the scent of warm femininity surrounded him. How odd that in the six hundred years since his mate's death, he'd not noticed another woman's scent as deeply as that of the one beneath him now. Of course, his own pending death may just have something to do with that.

She struggled beneath him, finally able to lever herself up to a sitting position. Long, dark tendrils of sodden hair clung to her shoulders and chest, the cap she'd been wearing dripped more water down her face. Lucian sucked in a painful breath. How - it could not be. Seeing her reflected in Selene had been one thing. For all Lucian knew, Viktor might have had other children not turned or born vampire. He could have kept them as serfs. Selene could very well have been a distant relative of Viktor's or Sonja's mother.

But this woman should not bear so striking a resemblance to his lost Sonja. She should not stir him as only Sonja ever had. Six hundred years of plotting his revenge, of saving his people from the crushing weight of the vampire's boot heel and tyranny, of living a half-life. And now, he stared up stupidly at her. Fitting, really. He'd failed Sonja all those years ago and now, on death's very doorstep, he stared up at the face of all he'd lost.

* * *

><p>Dawn flinched as he snarled - <em>snarled<em> - at her. Okay, so maybe there was a language barrier. She could speak other languages. And honestly, she wasn't the one bleeding. Last time she'd been the one bleeding, she'd been a bit testy herself. Time for a different approach.

"Are you in need of assistance? Are you badly wounded, sir?" Dawn tried to scoot out from under him, but he managed to find the strength to clamp onto her hips in a death grip.

She sucked a pained hiss through her teeth. The last time someone had grabbed her that hard had been when Rona'd tackled her in that graveyard back in Philly six months ago. Dawn's eyes widened as she stared down into the eyes of the man. Fangs slipped past his lips and she knew she was in trouble. He levered himself up and sank them deep into her throat before she could even think to scream or fight back.

Panic beat at her, digging it's claws deeper as her heart pumped her blood faster into his waiting maw. She could feel the slick, warm slide of blood down the column of her throat and a pinched feeling deep in her gut. Blood. They were always after her blood.

Her stomach cramped painfully as he growled against her skin, his teeth no longer sunk into her flesh. Even the rain seemed to still. Dawn's vision dimmed as he pulled back, his shock clearly in his eyes as he took in the damage he'd done.

"You're glowing," he whispered brokenly.

"Oh shit," Dawn's eyes rolled back.

He made a lunge for her again, not that it did either one of them any good. The damage was done. It was always about the blood. It was just too bad for the monsters that they never really knew just what her blood was capable of.


	3. Two: Old Familiar Places

Title: Leasing Out Life  
>Author: Jmaria<br>Rating: FR-15  
>Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy or Underworld. I'm just completely fascinated by them.<br>Spoilers: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (even though everything considered a spoiler is in the first movie) and season 7. (Also, possibly for Underworld: Awakening)  
>Summary: For hundreds of years, Lucian has been trying to find what he lost when Sonja died. Close to death, he just might find what he wasn't looking for in Dawn Summers<br>A/N: The strongest image I had of the first movie was of Lucian biting Michael. I don't know why, but it was which is part of the reason I had him bite Dawn. (The other has to do with the fact that I was reading Meagan Hatfield's _Shadow of the Vampire_, which is pretty bite-heavy.) It's a good plot device to get them out of the alleyway (because Dawn could never carry him and he's severely wounded), as well as it being the nature of a wounded animal to attack.

_**Leasing Out Life**_  
><em>Two: Old Familiar Places<em>

Dawn's whole body shook and throbbed as the energy swirled around her faster and faster. All of a sudden in was over, and she was slamming into the ground face first. She managed to roll a bit, lifting her arm to protect her head in time. She felt the stinging ache in her shoulder and wrist but the pain of her keyness outweighed that by far. She wasn't supposed to open anything anymore! Not after Glory's crazy person tower. It was supposed to be one shot deal. That's what Giles had told her.

Her hands sank into hard, unyielding soil. Her eyes flicked up to the dense canopy of the trees. Where the hell had the portal energy sent her? _What_ kind of hell dimension was it? And it could have at least been a softer landing.

"What are you?"

Dawn kicked herself backwards. How could she have forgotten her assailant? Oh, right. She was too busy focusing on the key-ain't-so-broke aspect of it all. Hugging her back to the large conifer behind her, she glared at the man in front of her.

"You're really gonna hit me with that question? Especially after you _bit_ me, you son of a bitch?" Her voice squeaked a bit, but given the traumatic experience she'd just gone through, she was fairly certain she was entitled to a squeaky voice.

"As if I haven't heard _that_ before," he snapped back, a tinge of a growl in his voice.

"Oh, shit, you're a shifter!" Dawn paled, her hand snapping up to the nearly gone fang marks there. Wait, hadn't he _just_ bit her?

"Lycan."

"Fancy way of saying werewolf, but okay," Dawn fingered the disappearing wound on her throat. Why the hell was it healing so fast? Growly-man in front of her first, potential new issues second. "Needless to say, you shouldn't have pulled innocent bystanders into the little pissing turf-war you have with the high and mighty covens! A drinking buddy of mine went missing after that attack in the subway, and now you _bit_ me!"

"You've avoided my question," the Lycan glared at her.

"Oh, don't _even_ go there! I'm most likely infected and stuck in the middle of god knows where with Mr. Bite-happy! Are you sure you're not part vampire? Because they tend to be the bite happy sort."

"We're in the woods."

"Really? What gave it away? The monolithic trees or the lack of urban noise?" Dawn bit out, her hands shaking as she inched her way up the tree. Her knees shook from the power still throbbing through her. Damn Key.

He pushed himself up, his eyes tracking her slow progress. How she could have mistaken him for nearly dead back in town? Two tiny rivulets of pinkish blood oozed down his half-bare chest, his long dark hair plastered to his neck and shoulders with a mix of brackish water and blood. Other than that, he looked fine. In every sense of the word.

He boxed her in against the tree, a wall of leather and anger in front of her. Why was he so angry with her? She was the victim in all of this. The idiot girl in the wrong place at the wrong time. She hadn't asked to be bitten, and she certainly hadn't known her Key abilities would come back at the least opportune moment.

"Woods outside the keep," the Lycan growled, wrenching her head to the side to show her ruins of an old fortress.

"Get your hands off of me!" Dawn shrieked, clawing at him.

"How do you know of this place?"

"I've never been here before in my life."

Images blared to life in her mind, the throb intensifying. Snarling Lycans, hissing vampires, blood running in rivers across the land. What the hell was going on?

"What clever little trap has Viktor set before me now?"

_Sonja. The answer is always Sonja._

"Sonja? Who the fuck is Sonja?" Dawn's vision blurred and she found herself slipping into the darkness again.

* * *

><p>Lucian caught her in his arms as she pitched forward. He'd stiffened at the mention of his dead love, and had almost let her fall back to the ground. But some greater force had moved his hands to catch her in his embrace. Her head lolled forward, catching on his shoulder. Her breath whispered over the crease of his shoulder, and a growl pushed through his lips unbidden.<p>

His blood surged with renewed strength as he scooped her up into his arms. Sonja would have weighed more than this human child. She also would have fought him on the issue of his carrying her. But this girl was in no position to argue and they were not safe out in the open.

Lucian glanced up at the ruins. He'd not been back here since the day Sonja had been killed. He made his way through the trees, cradling her head to his shoulder. He was going back to his first home.

* * *

><p><em>The thin girl ran frantically through the knee-high water. Her long dark braid slapped wetly against her back as the water kicked up against her. Her heart beat erratically as she sought out her brother.<em>

"_Mikhail! Mikhail!" She hissed, hoping he would hear her over the screams of the village. She'd lost sight of her twin in the chaos, and Marta had been dragged from their hiding spot. Mikhail had rushed after her, even though he was no more than a boy, and hadn't the strength or skill to save their brother's wife. "Mikhail!"_

_A hand clamped over her mouth, another over her waist as she was dragged back into the tall grass. She glanced up, tempted to bite down on the hand that had snagged her, but held back when she saw her brother staring down at her._

"_It was William. He took Marta," Mikhail's voice shook, and she could see his face for the very first time. Blood spattered across the left side of his pale face. Her heart thumped painfully. Her brother could not be bitten. She could lose no more of her fractured family. Marcus and William had already been changed - each recruiting two, brutal and cruel armies. Their sisters, Magda and Alessa had been slain most brutally along with their young families. Vincent had not returned from his hunt for their killers. And now his pregnant bride had been ripped from their very hands._

"_You - you cannot be -"_

"_It is Marta's blood," Mikhail swiped at his cheek, trying to sweep her blood of his skin. "I fell. I could not save her."_

"_How do you know it was our William?" she trembled from the relief of knowing her beloved twin had not been _changed_._

"_He is the only silver Lycan_."

* * *

><p>Dawn jerked upright, her body sore and abused. Black walls broken and crumbling loomed over her. She'd been set into a crumbling throne, unforgiving stone softened by a damp leather jacket.<p>

"Spike?" She glanced up, hoping that somehow her big brother-figure had found her. Which was ridiculous, since they wouldn't have even realized she was missing yet.

"My name is Lucian."

"Shit."


End file.
